Page 111 of Brimstone

He hadn’t even blinked when Carrion had stormed into his forge, much taller than he’d been before, sporting pointed ears and the kind of teeth that could do some serious damage.

He hadknown.

Elroy looked up at me, the truth right there in his eyes. I was right. “Plenty of people still tell stories about before. When your kind still visited Zilvaren,” he said.

I shot him a disappointed look. “No. That’s not it. Try again.”

Wearily, he shrugged, shaking his head. “Fine. You’re right. I’ve known about the Fae my whole life.” He nodded at Carrion. “I’ve always known about him, too.”

“I’m sorry,what?” Carrion’s voice was three octaves higher than normal. “You’ve alwaysknownabout me? Always known about—” He threw his hands in the air, staring up at the ceiling. “Don’t you think you should have mentioned that? Y’know, during any of thehundredsof interactions we’ve had over the years?”

“Why?” Elroy looked genuinely confused. “It wouldn’t have changed anything. You would have still been an annoying, loud-mouthed smuggler with a penchant for stealing my glassware.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it would have been nice for me to talk to someone who knew who I really was? Maybe it wouldhave been nice to—to—Oh, never mind. Forget it. You’re right. Itwouldn’thave changed anything.You’dstill have been a miserable git with no sense of humor!”

Elroy leaned his elbows on his thighs, hands clasped together. “You hadGracia.” He sounded exhausted.

“I did.” Carrion nodded. “And she was enough. But one person out of millions? It would have been nice if that number had been two.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay. But I wasn’t supposed to tell you I knew, anyway. There were rules I was supposed to keep, and—”

“What rules?” My body felt strange. Too hot. It could have been the fact that I was standing in a forge, in a realm that was alreadyunreasonablyfucking hot, but this felt different. I could feel my heart beating all over my body.

Elroy huffed, annoyance carved into the lines of his face, but he answered. “Don’t tell anyone about the Fae. Don’t talk to Carrion about the Fae. Don’t tell anyone about any magic users I came across. Things like that.”

“And who made you promise to observe these rules?”

“My father,” he said. “Andhisfather madehimpromise. I’m a forge master, warrior. The son of forge masters. The Swift family wasn’t theonlybloodline that was charged with a task they handed down through the generations. Gracia and her lot watched over the boy. Me and mine were given a different job to do.”

I could hear it now, pounding in my ears.

Thrum.

Thrum.

Thrum.

I swallowed hard and spoke, my voice just a whisper. “Tell me.”

Elroy grimaced, running his tongue over his teeth. Slapping his palms against his thighs, he got to his feet. “I think it’s probably better if I just show you.”

“I’m not offended, per se. Just a little . . .outraged.”

Carrion hadn’t stopped grousing since the glassmaker had yanked back the rug that covered the wall and revealed a secret door. The tiniest scrap of magic, cleverly woven, was all that hid the door. When Elroy had pricked his finger and daubed a small amount of his blood against the wall, the heavy blocks of sandstone had moved back, filling the forge with a grinding sound that had set my teeth on edge.

Elroy had grabbed a torch and descended the stairs first, followed by Hayden. Carrion had followed behind me, which meant that I was the one who had to listen to his string of complaints.

“Centuries.Centuries!There were Fae plans underway here for years, taking place right beneath my nose, and no one thought to tellme, the only member of the Fae in Zilvaren?”

“Your friend says they had their reasons,” I muttered over my shoulder. “So they must have had their reasons.” I didn’t know if that was true—humans lied all the time, sometimes for no good reason whatsoever. Elroy could have been making all of this up for all we knew, but he had no discernible reason to lie. None thatIcould see, anyway.

The stairs went on forever. Down, down, down . . .

The walls weren’t made of sandstone here. They were granite. Smooth, cool, and hard. The kind of stone that could withstand the test of timeanda shifting sea of sand. Wherever Elroy was leading us, he did so in silence, the back of his head and his shaggy shoulder-length gray hair the only part of himI could see over Hayden’s shoulder. I could feel the tension pouring off him, though—felt it strongly enough that I confused it with my own.

“How much farther?” Hayden asked softly. He’d intended the question for Elroy’s ears alone, but the boy didn’t know anything of Fae hearing yet. He sounded nervous.

“Another two hundred steps or so,” Elroy answered.